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CINCINNATI — The parents of a 16-year-old northwestern Ohio boy have filed a federal
civil-rights lawsuit claiming he suffered a traumatic brain injury during a coach-sanctioned hazing
drill.

Daniel and Amy Sprinski Jr. of Elmore, about 20 miles southeast of Toledo, filed the lawsuit in
Toledo on Monday. Named in the suit are the Woodmore school district, Woodmore High School head
coach Britton Devier and Todd Bringman, who resigned as assistant coach after the player was
injured.

Devier and district Superintendent Linda Bringman, who is Todd Bringman’s sister-in-law, did not
immediately return messages seeking comment. Todd Bringman has an unlisted number.

The lawsuit said Todd Bringman directed a Sept. 10 hazing drill in which one group of football
players had to hit teammates as hard as they could as punishment for a perceived lack of hustle,
with the second group being ordered not to protect themselves or hit back. The Sprinskis’ son,
whose name was not released, “was hit exceptionally hard and driven to the ground,” and the back of
his head hit packed dirt, according to the lawsuit.

Soon after, the teen began acting confused and disoriented, then vomited and eventually
collapsed — all well-known concussion symptoms, according to the lawsuit.

The suit says the coaches told two other players to help the boy to the locker room, where an
athletic trainer saw him.

The lawsuit says that no one called an ambulance and that the boy’s older brother had to help
the “unresponsive” teen to his car before driving him home. He was diagnosed at a hospital with a
concussion and other injuries, the lawsuit said.

The teen now has learning and memory problems, is depressed and anxious, can no longer play
football or other sports, still has to get regular treatment for his injuries, and transferred to a
different school because students were giving him a hard time, said Chuck Boyk, the Toledo attorney
representing the Sprinskis.

An Ottawa County grand jury declined to indict the coaches on criminal charges after hearing two
days of testimony from 49 witnesses and investigations by the Ohio attorney general’s office and
the state’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation.